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By Elvina NawagunaReuters • Friday November 1, 2013 2:11 AM

WASHINGTON — The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., announced yesterday three new
manufacturing projects by suppliers in the United States to produce footwear, curtains and
glassware as part of a broader commitment to “buy American.”

Bill Simon, Wal-Mart’s U.S. president and CEO, made the announcement with U.S. Commerce
Secretary Penny Pritzker at SelectUSA, a two-day event designed to promote investment and job
creation in the United States.

President Barack Obama, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and other top officials also
will speak at the conference.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the world and with about 1.3
million employees in the United States, said the three projects would create 385 jobs.

“It takes a lot of entrepreneurship; it takes a lot of innovation; it takes a lot of conviction
to make that decision to take that step to invest capital here,” Simon said.

Elan-Polo Inc. will start production of injection-molded footwear in March at a factory in
Hazelhurst, Ga. The company previously made the shoes overseas.

At the news conference, Elan-Polo CEO Joe Russell cited “support and encouragement” from
Wal-Mart, which it has been supplying with goods for 35 years.

EveryWare Global Inc. will produce canning jars for Wal-Mart at its Monaca, Pa., plant,
establishing a new made-in-the-U.S. product line.

And Louis Hornick and Co., a Wal-Mart supplier for four decades, will establish a factory to
make window coverings and home textiles in Allendale County, South Carolina.

“Our next goal is to encourage other businesses just like these to step up to the plate,”
Pritzker said.

Yesterday’s announcement was part of Wal-Mart’s pledge, announced in January, to buy an
additional $50 billion in U.S. products in the next decade.

In August, the company held a “manufacturing summit” attended by more than 500 suppliers from 34
states.

Reuters reported in September that in advance of Wal-Mart’s patriotic pledge, many of the
company’s longtime suppliers already had decided to make their products in the United States as
rising wages in China and elsewhere eroded the allure of offshore production.